An Internet “good news” portal has reported on this year’s “Parliament of World Religions”, an interfaith event that bills itself as “the oldest, the largest, and the most inclusive gathering of people of all faith and traditions. According to the report:
October 21, 2015 The best qualities of the world’s many religions were on display in Salt Lake City, Utah last week where the Parliament of the World’s Religions convened.
Roughly 10,000 people representing 50 faiths attended, taking part in discussions focused on ending violence, tackling climate change and addressing income inequality.
The gathering also featured its first Women’s Assembly addressing religion’s role in empowering women and its responsibility for dignity and human rights of women.
Primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall spoke to attendees about uniting religious and spiritual communities to save the environment. More than 70 other speakers, including three Nobel Peace Laureates, covered issues from ending war to countering extremism with acts of compassion.
Nearly 1,000 volunteers worked behind the scenes as attendees put their faiths’ activities on display. Buddhist monks worked on an intricate sand painting as Sikhs served up to 7,000 meals at a time from their local langar — a community kitchen that feeds people of all faiths free of charge.
On the final day of the Parliament, the sand painting was brushed away to demonstrate the impermanence of this world and the Sikh langar donated thousands of pounds of unused food to a Catholic charity that feeds the poor in Utah.
The Parliament is the oldest and perhaps most diverse interfaith gathering in the world, dating back to its first meeting in Chicago, Illinois on September, 11 1893. Since 1999, it has gathered people of faith together every five years.
The board of trustees announced during the gathering that the Parliament would meet every two years now, instead of five.
Chairman Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid closed this year’s session saying that participants had been telling him all week, ‘This was the best Parliament ever.’
Islam was represented at the event by two speakers with close ties to the Global Muslim Brotherhood/and or Saudi Arabia:
- Tariq Ramadan (grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood)
- John Esposito (Saudi-funded with many past or present affiliations with global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas organizations)
- Saleh Abdullah bin Humaid (Imam and preacher of the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia)
In January, the GMBDW reported on the Parliament of World Religions Chairman Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid in connection with an en event that launched a new US Muslim Brotherhood fronts to be called the “Strategic Communications Center for Muslims.” At that time we wrote the following about Dr. Mujahid:
It should be no surprise then that Abdul Malik Mujahid heads an organization who Islamic members have such deep and interconnected Islamist ties. Despite his record of interfaith activities and public awards, Dr. Mujahid’s background reveals long-standing and extensive Islamist ties of his own beginning with his education at the Darul Uloom Shah Waliullah in Pakistan named after Shah Waliullah, an 18th century Islamic “reformer.” Shah Waliullah’s desire to revive the time of Muslim rule has been described as the same school of thought that created the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), Pakistan’s oldest religious party and close to the Global Muslim Brotherhood. It is likely no coincidence then that Dr. Mujahid has served as a past President of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood and considered to be closely tied to the JEI. His more recent involvement with the US Muslim Brotherhood includes serving as chair of the Burma Task Force, made up of numerous US Brotherhood organizations including ICNA. (It should also be noted that at one time, Dr. Mujahid and Soundvision were located at a home in Bridgeview, Illinois located less than a kilometer from the Mosque Foundation, with its own history of fundraising for Islamist charities, including Hamas, and mosque leaders were also leaders of US Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas support organizations.
The event itself was sponsored by by the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, known by its abbreviation KAICIID, a controversial organization that was founded in Vienna in October 2011 by the then Saudi King. The GMBDW reported in September that the KAICIID, was to launch what was described as a “ground-breaking platform to support religious freedoms for Muslim and Jewish communities across Europe.” Participants included a global charity linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that is banned by Israel over Hamas funding and a German Muslim Brotherhood leader who is associated with the virulently anti-Semitic Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.
